Category Archives: Housing

1950 : Glebe Estate Flats construction concern

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Mitcham News and Mercury
3rd March, 1950, page 1

Glebe Estate Flats
Scheme “Causing Some Anxiety”

CONCERN at progress on the Glebe Estate where a hundred flats are under construction was expressed by Mitcham’s Housing chairman (Ald. C. A. Norris), at Tuesday’s Council meeting.

“This scheme, ill advised in the first place, seems doomed to failure and is causing us some anxiety,” he said. They hoped the contractor would pull the thing round and give them some units of accommodation.

No-one knew what the rents would be. Figures varying between 45s. to 60s. a week had been mentioned. He hoped there would be enough people on the local housing list willing to pay these high rents.

A report of the Borough Surveyor (Mr. Riley Schofield) states that progress on the site is not satisfactory, but the architect informed him that the position did not warrant the exercise of his power under Clause 19 of the conditions of contract to serve a notice that the contractor was not proceeding with the work with reasonable diligence.

The amount of work had improved considerably during last two months. average weekly value of builders’ work in January including the Christmas holiday was approximately £1,500. The December figure was £1,000 and the highest figure prior this was £900 in August.

The Beeches

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The Beeches Estate is on London Road, Mitcham, just south of the new Mitcham Fire Station. It was built in 1959/60 on the site of E.T. Pearson, makers of Lactagol, which was bought by Mitcham Borough Council in 1959.

From the Norwood News, 15th July 1960:

The Beeches

A block of maisonettes and flats being built at 417-45, London Road, Mitcham, will be called “The Beeches.”

1953 OS map shows houses no. 417 and 419, and Pharmaceutical Products company, numbered 421 to 445. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland (CC-BY-NC-SA)

Photo taken April 2022

The Royal Mail website lists 32 flats on this estate, all with the postcode CR4 4BH.

The building is a slightly offset T-shape, with the the top of the ‘T’ facing the road, which has a ground floor of flats, and two upper floors of maisonettes. The vertical part of the ‘T’ to the rear has two floors of maisonettes.

Note the arrangement of the windows in the lower floor of each maisonette. All have French windows and a window to its side. The road facing block has six flats. The three flats to the left of the stairs have the French windows on the right of the main window, whereas the three flats on the right have the French windows to the left of the main window. The rear block has an alternating pattern of these windows.

Also of note are the brick-enclosed drain pipes.

Photo taken October 2018

A report in May 1959 said that the cost to Mitcham Borough Council was around £82,000.

As part of the Mitcham Bridge reconstruction, a cycle lane has been built that runs in front of the block. It goes around the back of the bus stop, requiring it to have a crossing which is flanked by raised bobbles that tells a blind person they are at a crossing, and ‘do not overtake marks’ for cyclists.

Photo taken 19th October, 2021.

Maps are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.